Antimatter Earth
by Saturnalius
Summary: After the events of Trinity, Eddie Nashton was sent back home to the Antimatter Universe with his daughter Stephie to finally set things straight. The two managed to quiet the crime in Gotham, but that's when things begin to go wrong. Discrepancies in their world begin to show up, and the CSA seems to have a few new allies. (You don't need to know Trinity to read this, just Batman)
1. Athena's Wrath 1: Origin Stories

The Antimatter Universe, a place where right is wrong and good is evil. Heroism is a dirty word and villainy is a regular occurrence. Eddie Nashton was a rare breed on this world, naturally brilliant with a good right-sided heart in his body. Eddie was obsessed with the idea of other worlds, learning about them almost to a point of obsession. Through his research, he learned that his world was a reverse of all others, which only drove him to be the one to stand up against the crime riddling the streets, taking on the name Quizmaster.

He formed the Justice Underground and together they worked to clean up the streets, eventually catching the attention of the reigning Crime Syndicate of Amerika. All seemed well, with good having a fighting chance against the Syndicate, but there was one golden rule of the Antimatter Universe: evil always wins.

The Syndicate slaughtered the JU, and Eddie fled underground. The Syndicate hunted him down, and Ultraman, the antimatter Superman, burned off half his face then burnt down his house, killing most of Eddie's family. Eddie managed to rescue his daughter by imbuing her soul in technology.

Distraught and hopeless, Eddie jumped worlds to the Positive-matter Universe in a last-ditch effort to change his own world. He resorted to vile and insidious things, all to save his own home by destroying another in return. It entailed a Trinity ritual where he and two others would reform the world in their own image, in turn reshaping the reflective Antimatter Universe. Eddie came to his senses, realizing what a terrible thing he'd done, turning against his former allies, and that nearly cost him when his former allies turned on him, one destroying the SPHERE which housed his daughter Stephie and the other driving a sword through Eddie's own back. That would be the end of the story, if not for a last minute save from someone unexpected, one of the people Eddie had sought to destroy.

The unexpected friend saved Stephie who in turn, took Eddie back home to their backwards Antimatter Earth to heal and eventually to protect their world, giving the people hope. The two matter worlds had been reset, the damages undone and returned to their working states. Evil still won. That was the rule. They could change the rules. Good could be right, for once. The just could win.

Since their return, Eddie had built up a base of operations, staying within an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Gotham City. No one had bothered it for years, leaving it to sit and grow old near the shoreline. While the technology was far outdated, Eddie modified it to his liking, improving upon it and making the place rather livable.

Eddie had returned with an interesting power. While his skills were predominantly technologically driven, the Trinity ritual had left him with a godlike form, one Stephie had dubbed his shadow form. At will, Eddie could shift his normal human form into that of a black shadow with a green question mark wrapping around his left eye and traveling down the left side of his body. He could change his size and shape and travel among the shadows unnoticed.

With the SPHERE destroyed, Stephie's soul had been merged with the Void Hound, giving Stephie her life back and the Void Hound a purpose. Previously the Hound had roamed the Antimatter Universe (later the Positive-matter Universe), devouring worlds and destroying without a purpose in the cosmos. After the battle with the remaining Troika, Batman had offered the Hound a purpose and Stephie a way to save her father's life, merging the two to become one bio-mechanical entity. Now the Hound destroyed to save the Antimatter Earth with Stephie as his constant companion. The void hound was very happy.

The Hound curled up on the bed Eddie had made for him, fashioned from two blankets and 20 pounds of fluff. Eddie himself was mulling over the wall of monitors he had set up on the far side of the main factory floor. He'd tapped into a network of surveillance cameras all across Gotham, watching, waiting.

There had been so much petty crime at first the surveillance was painful and near impossible to watch. Yet gradually, with much effort on the heroes' part, the crimes began to cease. Enigma's presence with Stephie-Hound had caused quite a stir. Both he and the Void Hound were incredibly intimidating. The Hound was a snarling mechanical world-destroying dog, while Enigma just looked like a criminal mastermind. Thanks to the Trinity ritual, he'd obtained a godlike form consisting of shadows. Stephie called it his shadow form. Somehow, even after the ritual had been reversed, Eddie managed to keep the form. He used it mainly for transport, but it worked well for intimidation.

"Come sit with us, daddy!" Stephie called out from within the Void Hound's body.

Eddie turned, breaking his gaze from the wall of monitors to see the hound curled up on the oversized bed. Truthfully, Eddie had been brooding too much, mulling over the monitors with almost an obsessive eye. Perhaps it was time for a break. Heading over to the bed, he sat down on it then leaned against the hound, using him as a pillow. it was like having a large metallic pet dog. Eddie always wanted a pet dog.

"Something's bothering you, isn't it?" Stephie added. She could see it in her father's eyes, his actions and mannerisms.

Eddie knew he couldn't hide his thoughts from her long. "The Syndicate," he replied. "They've been quiet, too quiet for them." The Syndicate was full of loud-mouthed braggarts. Their silence never meant anything good. Perhaps they were off on the other side of the world on a bad will mission, bribing people for money and drugs as usual. It wouldn't be long before they made an appearance.

"Maybe they've finally given up," Stephie suggested. "Seen the error in their ways." Her heart was too kind sometimes.

Eddie frowned sharply. "That's about as likely as us winning the lottery." He knitted his hands together as he watched the screens from a distance. "They're planning something, yet what? They're not smart enough to chain together a masterful plan. At least not that I know of."

Eddie didn't have high hopes for the Syndicate's intelligence. The smartest one of the bunch, Owlman, Batman's Antimatter counterpart, was crafty and resourceful, but there was no way he could keep Ultraman and his loud mouth under control long enough to unfold an elaborate scheme. Regardless, they were planning something, but what?

...

"You're absolutely positive you found him?"

Owlman smirked. "Even shadows can't hide forever." He'd called the rest of the Syndicate to his Nest, a room he'd made for himself within their moon base filled with technology, showing them images across monitors of Enigma's movements. They knew little of Enigma's new partner, the mysterious, strange mechanical hound who'd seemingly come from nowhere. Together the two had nearly subdued the activity within Gotham City at an alarming rate. There was resistance, of course, but nothing enough to make them happy with the results.

The creature seemed to match ancient legends from a nearby worthless planet, the legend of Erdammeru, but it couldn't be. There was no way little Riddles McGee would keep a planet destroyer in his company. Yet after Enigma nearly destroyed the planet himself, Owlman was questioning how good this guy really was.

"He's a tricky one. He's very good at masking his movements, slipping into the shadows," Owlman continued. "Even _I_ had trouble finding him." If there was one thing Eddie Nashton was good at, it was keeping secrets. He was enigmatic and mysterious, hiding his identity for years. He hid his movements, seemingly slipping into the shadows. He masked his activities, even managed to hide his digital footprint on the internet. Such a clever creature he was.

"So you found him?" Ultraman frowned. "I'm tired of all this waiting!"

Superwoman, Wonder Woman's Antimatter counterpart, punched him in the back of the skull. "Patience, you dolt! Evil will always win. The chase is fun, though."

Owlman frowned, rolling his eyes behind his goggles. They'd been together for 5 minutes and had already started fighting again. Since they'd all been sent back home to the Antimatter Universe, the two had been at each others' throats for whatever reason they had. Their marriage was nothing but misery. This was why Owlman had no intention of ever getting married.

"I've narrowed it down to three locations," Owlman replied. "I'll be dispatching our secret weapon to drive him out of hiding and take him alive."


	2. Athena's Wrath 2: Shadows

They were in need of supplies. Eddie slipped out of the factory relatively unnoticed, disguising his identity. He wore a dark hoodie, the hood pulled up over his face to hide the scarring. Scars weren't entirely uncommon to see in this world, but the extend of Eddie's scaring made him stand out, like a sign he'd done something good. Despite his efforts, good was still bad.

He looked up to see a dark shadow bound across a few buildings. Owlman? Perhaps, though the form seemed more slender than his bulky form. Regardless, if he were back prowling the streets like a vigilant villain he was, that could mean danger. Eddie had placed their base of operations far enough away from where Enigma would appear to prevent as many suspicions as possible. Chances were, the Syndicate, particularly Owlman, was hunting for him again. His suspicions were probably right.

It was getting late. Supplies could wait. He needed to get home.

...

She ran through the night, barely noticed by the denizens of Gotham City bustling about her. This lack of crime within the city was disgusting and disturbing. The situation had to be quickly corrected. And that was exactly the reason she had been sent here.

Her name was Athena, though that was the name Owlman had given to her. She had brilliant red hair, slightly curly, flying loosely in the wind as she moved about. Unlike her mentor, Athena chose a large goggles over a cowl. They were purple, matching her outfit. It was long-sleeved, decorated with a corset along her midsection with straps over her shoulders, crisscrossing in the back. She had gold knee-high boots, gold bangles, and a matching gold utility belt. Behind her trailed a cape of golden feathers latched in the front with an owl-shaped medallion.

"I'm moving in on the last location," she informed her observant mentor over the commlink. "The first two locations were empty, but this third one: the lights are on. Someone's home." Athena perched herself in a tree near the abandoned factory, watching, waiting, observing the people within. There was a chance Enigma wasn't involved and it was just some kinds vandalizing the place. That would be a welcomed sight to see.

...

Eddie knitted his hands as he leaned back in the chair in front of the monitors. He turned his staff over in his hands, looking for signs of that shadow he saw earlier. He hadn't found anything yet, even though he made haste back to the warehouse using his shadow form to slip past people in the shadows cast by the buildings in the setting sun. He had to make sure Stephie was safe, even though she was even more powerful than he in battle. She was the last bit of family he had left.

"Nothing," he frowned. What did he expect? Like Eddie himself, Owlman liked to operate in the shadows. Finding him would be difficult. His identity was secret as well, leaving it near impossible to track him when he wasn't Owlman. It would be a battle of wits, to see who could outlast the other.

Across the room, Stephie had fallen fast asleep. The Hound, however, didn't sleep. Instead he stayed awake, his mechanical mind whirring about as he kept a vigilant watch. Anyone who attacked their home would meet his wrath. He hungered for battle, but he could wait. He didn't need to destroy everything. He had a purpose now.

...

Athena moved up the tree, working to get a better view into the factory window. The window was dirty, obscuring the view inside, though there was definitely someone or something on the main floor. She pulled her binoculars from her utility belt, unfolding them and bringing them to full size.

"I can see that hound," Athena tapped her ear to activate her commlink.

"Perfect," Owlman responded over the commlink, probably knitting his fingers together in contemplation as his sidekick did the dirty work. "Disable it as quickly as possible. Take it to lure out the shadow."

"Understood," she smirked, folding up and tucking the binoculars back into a pouch. She had a plan for them, even a backup plan. The Syndicate said Enigma was trouble, but he was just one non-superpowered man and a superhuman mutt. They couldn't be that bad, and with that mutt in custody, Enigma wouldn't be able to fully fight against them. That mutt was the powerhouse. "They won't know what hit them."

...

The Hound stared out the window as Stephie slept and Eddie mulled over the monitors on the side. Eddie hadn't stirred, probably falling asleep in the faint glow of the monitors. The night sky was clear, the full moon shining through the window. Yet his ever vigilant eyes caught something moving in the trees. A squirrel? No, it felt sentient. Evil. He wanted to destroy it. Partially, at least. Maybe tear a leg off.

He watched the shadow through the window, scanning it on several wavelengths. At first it seemed like a massive owl or some sort of creature the Hound had grown accustomed to seeing over the past month since he'd arrived. But this shadow, no, it wasn't the local fauna. It was something that needed to be destroyed.

Something crashed through the dusty window. Eddie jumped awake, grabbing for his staff. A few feet away from Stephie-Hound rolled in the cause of the crash. It was a small metallic ball, silver with a pattern plastered across it. "Owlman!"

"Daddy?!" Stephie stirred awake. "What's going on?"

"The Syndicate has found us," he replied, jumping from his chair. "But stay strong; we'll make it through this alive." He wasn't about to let the past repeat itself. He hadn't done everything to fix the world only to be so quickly taken from it. Evil didn't always have to win. They could change the rules. He dashed over to where Stephie once slept. "Just do _exactly_what I say."

The metallic ball opened like a box, pouring smoke into the factory room. There was an excessive amount of it, colored unnatural hues. It was overwhelming. It was hard to stand or see. Eddie found himself coughing then soon fell face first into the pillow bed next to the unconscious Stephie-Hound.


	3. Athena's Wrath 3: Down for the count

Athena kicked down the front door. "Well, well, looked like the old man was home too." The smoke from the bomb flowed past her, drawn out by the cool shoreline air and the wind. "And he was supposed to be a challenge, heh. I don't see how Owlman even had trouble with this guy." Eddie lay face down on the floor, face in the makeshift dog bed, his fingers barely touching the staff. The Hound had rolled over to its side, unconscious, perhaps dead. "Maybe I really am just that good."

Her footsteps were heavy on the factory floor. Eddie could hear each one as she approached. Despite what Athena believed, Eddie was hardly down for the count. Being obsessed with Batman lore and technology, he easily guessed what sort of power this thing had. And he was right. Knockout gas.

Eddie had thrown himself into the bed, using the massive amount of fluff as a shield from the knockout gas. To make the illusion even more convincing, he asked the Hound to simply play dead. Eddie wasn't entirely certain the Hound would even respond to such a command, but a few pleading words from Stephie, and the Hound simply rolled over and stopped moving.

What Eddie hadn't factored in was that the attacker _wasn't_ Owlman. She was someone completely different, certainly bearing his look and his affection for feathers and pointless costumery. It was a strange sight to see as the Syndicate never showed any interest in taking sidekicks, unlike their positive matter counterparts that seemed to have an excessive amount of them.

Perhaps there was a discrepancy in the timeline, something that had gotten interrupted when the worlds reset themselves. Eddie had considered the idea, as somehow he was able to keep his godlike shadow form, though everything else seemed perfectly back to the way it was, as perfectly backwards as his homeworld was.

The footsteps stopped next to Eddie. "Seems this dog thing was organic after all," Athena mused aloud. Eddie could see the shine of her yellow boots out of the corner of his eye. Quietly wrapping his fingers around his staff, he suddenly shot to life, wrapping the crook of his staff around her ankle and yanking, throwing her swiftly onto her back.

Eddie jumped to his feet, drawing his staff to both hands and pointing the crooked end at her chest. "I suggest you don't move. I'm sure you know what I'm capable of."

She didn't move much more than to place her hands comfortably by her head, almost as if surrender had it not been for the sneer twisting her features. "Oh you are as good as they say."

The Void Hound sprang back to life, taking his proper place beside Eddie. "You caught her, daddy!" Stephie exclaimed. "... but who is she?"

"Daddy?" Athena echoed, raising her eyebrows in surprise. He considered this thing his child? Or was there more to this? "That _thing_ is your _child?_ What are you, some sick f-"

"That's enough from you, Owlgirl," Eddie cut her off quickly, pressing the crook of his staff into the bottom of her jaw. It was enough to make her breathing more difficult but not enough to suffocate her. He wasn't fond of people mocking what was left of his family.

"It's Athena, actually," she corrected him.

"Same difference," Eddie frowned. She was taking the fun out of guessing her moniker. "Since when does Owlman take in fledglings?"

"Easy," Athena smirked. Shifting her weight slightly, she jammed the top of her boot into the back of his knee, causing him to momentarily lose his balance as his knee buckled out from underneath him. "When they're as good as he is." Now free from the staff, Athena pulled her foot underneath, bringing her body upright as she jammed the heel of the other boot into Eddie's stomach.

Unlike his nemesis, Eddie was not built for impacts. He flew backwards several feet before colliding with the floor, rolling a few times, then impacting one of the support beams. "Ugh..." He dropped his staff, grabbing his head. He could feel the impact resonating in the metallic mask he wore to cover the scarring on the left half of his face. No, there was more to it. This ringing felt mechanical.

"Daddy!" Stephie shouted, panicking.

"Don't worry about Daddy," he shouted back, rubbing his forehead. "Take her down! Stop her!"

Stephie turned to where Athena once stood but she'd receded into the shadows for another attack. "Daddy, I don't feel well." The Hound whined a bit before staggering. He felt weak and confused, lost and dizzy. Destroy? Destroy? No he couldn't destroy. The target was too far away.

The ringing in Eddie's head hadn't quite stopped yet, however he dashed forward, collecting the crooked staff off the floor as he moved. He wasn't about to let the Syndicate take Stephie-Hound. He couldn't let them have more of his family.

Athena emerged once again from the shadows, taking another jab at Eddie's stomach. He quickly dodged it, briefly noticing she held something unusual in her hand, as he shifted directions towards the helpless Void Hound. Eddie then turned, silently commanding a large energy blast from his staff only for absolutely nothing to happen.

Then it all made sense. That noise emitting from the object in Athena's hand was the perfect frequency to disrupt the technology used to form the Void Hound. When did Owlman actually get that creative? Could it actually have been Athena's plan?

No matter now. It was time for a quick retreat. He was outmatched and had no plans of going down. He knew when it was time to recede to the shadows and reformulate a plan. "Tell me, Owlgirl: which is faster, cold or hot?"

Athena blinked stupidlly. "This isn't time for games! And it's Athena! ATHENA!"

What a temper she had. A smirk crossed his lips as Eddie began shifting into his godlike shadow form. He often didn't use it, but at times like this, it was exactly what he needed. He became a tower of black, a green question mark traveling down the left side of his face and body. Wrapping himself around the Void Hound, Eddie seemed to absorb them within his form. "Come find me when you have the answer," he taunted, using his strange form to simply slip into the darkness.

"Get back here, you stupid riddling freak!" she shouted, though her words fell on deaf ears as Eddie was long gone. She frowned in frustration, angry at her failure and shortcomings in judgment. "Run all you want!" she threatened. "You'll have no home to return to!" From her belt pouch, she pulled out a circular bomb, shook it a few times, dropped it and fled. The bomb opened up, lighting the factory ablaze, taking everything with it.

…**..**

**Author's notes**

Athena's profile:

_Villain name:_ Athena

_Civilian name:_ Barbara Gordon

_Positive counterpart:_ Batgirl

_Favorite things:_ Fire, bombs, technology, blackmail

_Brief history:_ Barbara was the daughter of the Gotham City chief of police, Jim Gordon. In the Antimatter Universe, the police don't have much pull at all, though that never stopped Jim from attempting to arrest and indict Owlman. Barbara went on investigations with Jim but instead of trying to stop Owlman, developed a crush on him. Owlman noticed Barbara's high level of intelligence and bloodlust and made her his sidekick.


	4. Athena's Wrath 4: I'll try anything once

"You really know how to take down the house," Owlman noted, tapping his chin thoughtfully as he observed his fledgling's work. It was only a partial victory blazing brilliantly before them, but a victory nonetheless.

"I do like to play with fire," Athena smirked, observing her handiwork. She was a pyromaniac, crafting her technology and weaponry around her need to create a flame and watch things burn. Any chance to burn down the house was a good one for her.

"How can you be _pleased_ with this?!" Ultraman fussed, floating behind the two owls furiously with his arms folded. A huge frown spanned his square features as he watched the factory burn. "Enigma got away, again! I'm getting tired of his running and hiding! He's back to his old dumb habits." He wanted results. He wanted absolution. Evil was supposed to win, and this world-jumping riddler was trying breaking the rules.

"Patience, Ultraman," Owlman sighed. There were times when he thought that oaf had rocks for brains. "Enigma no longer has his base of operations, no tech, nowhere to go. We've disabled his greatest weapon, that dog. It won't be long before he loses his will to fight."

"_And_," Athena added, "I've learned some very _valuable_ information. That weapon companion he keeps, the mutt. She called him 'daddy'."

"That daughter of his?" Ultraman exclaimed. "She's still alive?!"

Well this certainly turned the tables to their favor. On one of their prior meetings, when they struck a temporary deal with Enigma to reverse the Trinity ritual, Enigma had mentioned his daughter had survived yet the Society had never seen her once. It only would make sense he'd create some sort of construct to protect her. Yet that construct was new, perhaps a new form to make her more powerful. It was also interesting that his daughter was _fighting_ by his side. They could exploit that information, use this to their advantage.

"That daughter is his weakness," Owlman pointed out. "Get her, and you've got him. I don't care about what happens to her in the end. I want him alive."

...

Several days had come and gone with no sign or movement from Enigma. Athena sat impatiently in the control room in the Panopticon, the headquarters for the Syndicate's activity located on the moon, flipping a lighter open and shut mindlessly. She wanted to be in the Nest, Owlman's hideaway within the moon base, but the man had pushed her out the door, telling her he needed to be alone. Probably to brood or bang Superwoman again. Ultraman and Superwoman were married; Athena knew that. She also knew Superwoman was a bit whorish, using her promiscuity like a weapon against her husband.

Superwoman and Owlman had the tendency to get it on quite frequently, much to Ultraman's irritation. In the short time Athena had been with the Syndicate, the two had holed themselves away on multiple occasions, leaving Ultraman to pace within the Panopticon incessantly, even fire off his heat vision at them as a warning.

Not wanting to be involved in any of their petty civil matters or their love triangle, Athena kept to herself, observing the monitors lighting up the dark room. She'd hijacked all the surveillance cameras in Gotham in hopes to see someone who even just _looked_ like Enigma. No such luck.

Yet finding him was only half the battle. She had to find a way to separate Stephie from her father. While she had no trouble disabling Stephie, Athena knew that the same trick wouldn't work twice on Enigma. He'd simply whisk her away with that irritating god form of his or create something to counteract her previous bomb. Crafty bastard. He was smarter than she was, but her intelligence wasn't something mediocre. She could be crafty too.

"Finding anything?"

Athena whipped around to find Superwoman entering the room. She had expected the woman to be busy with Owlman. And for once, Superwoman actually seemed pleasant and civil, though chances were she was simply fishing for information Athena didn't have quite yet. The Syndicate as a whole was all so dead set on destroying Enigma, though the reasoning still wasn't entirely clear to Athena. As she liked to destroy and burn things down, the reasoning wasn't entirely important.

Then a thought came to her mind. "Lend me your lasso."

"Excuse me?" Superwoman frowned sharply. She came for information, not to give up her amazonian weapon, especially not to some pet owl. She didn't want to run the risk of the owling using her own weapon against her.

"Lend me your lasso just long enough to take down Enigma's daughter. It's unbreakable, right? Tell me its secrets," Athena repeated herself. She began unbuckling the ties on her corset and unzipping the top of her tunic. "I'll be sure to make this worth your while."

Superwoman raised her eyebrows, her frown quickly turning into a rather pleased smile. She would try anything at least once. "I do like where this is going."

...

Eddie had done a good job at hiding them from sight. He'd gone underground to the last place the Syndicate would ever knew. Eddie had a lab hidden beneath his family house, set up perfectly for everything he needed. Even during the previous assaults, the Syndicate never found it.

However, the place held so much pain and memories. Above them was the house where they lived, with the family he loved so dearly, burnt to the ground. It was down in this lab he first fused Stephie's soul with technology, and where he first got the idea to jump worlds. It was the place that drove him to do what he did with the Trinity ritual.

He wanted to think it was different, but in truth, it wasn't. He'd been driven there once again by the Syndicate, once again to try to save Stephie. With the threat of Athena's sonic device long since gone and his head finally not ringing, Eddie took to the lab to repair the broken technology, to repair his friend the Void Hound. He couldn't leave them damaged, most of all. Surely he could bring them back.


	5. Athena's Wrath 5: the Silver Coin Diner

"There, that should do it." Eddie stepped back from the table, placing the tools on the workbench. It had been a long few days but the Hound and Stephie had finally been repaired.

The Void Hound flickered on, powering up, stirring Stephie awake. She yawned, probably stretching as the Hound mimicked the actions, stretching out like a dog waking up from a nap. "Daddy, he says he feels different. I feel different."

"I had to make some modifications and repair the damage," Eddie replied. If he had known how the Hound truly worked, the modifications would've been much easier and finished quicker. The circuitry of the Void Hound was a bit trickier than his own inventions, and it housed a very intelligent AI as well as the soul of his daughter. He had to tread lightly to ensure no mistakes happened.

"You now should have moderate defense to that sort of sonic attack." He wasn't certain they'd try the same attack again, but he didn't give the Syndicate much credit. As long as they didn't start using EM pulses, they would be safe.

"What now, daddy?" Stephie asked, standing up. "Are we hiding again?"

"No, the rules have changed. It's not going to be how it was before," Eddie replied, pulling on his usual green tunic. They had come back, rescued from near death, to change this god-forbidden world, to make it a safe place for generations to come. True, they covered their trails and protected their identities, but by no means were they truly hiding. They had shown up around town on many occasions, to save and protect people, and for more mundane things like get supplies. "We're going out. We're short on supplies, and I really could use some coffee."

He wasn't wearing his hoodie. He was wearing the jacket he wore when masquerading as Enigma. "I can come too, right?" Stephie asked.

Eddie nodded, picking up his staff from the nearby workbench. "Of course. We're going to pay an old friend a visit."

...

It was hard to say how they got there at the door to the Silver Coin Diner, yet there they were. People strayed away from them, not only because of their appearance, but because they were heroes, the equivalent of a supervillian on any other plane of existence. Heroism was a dirty word. It was depressing at times, yet they still had friends within the community.

"Enigma, you're alive," the owner of the diner greeted Eddie as he opened the door, holding it to allow Stephie-Hound to come inside. Many of the diners strayed, hiding within the booths, but Eddie payed them no mind.

When his family was still well alive, Eddie took them to the Silver Coin Diner every Saturday. He got to know the owner, Harvey Dent and his wife Gilda. As the Quizmaster and later as Enigma, Eddie protected the diner and his strange coin-loving friend on several occasions, saving the place from sure destruction. Eddie wasn't entirely sure if Harvey knew that Enigma was Eddie, but Harvey never asked, and Eddie'd never confirmed or denied the information.

Harvey had a hidden side, though. He had his hands in the underground networks, mostly neutral though some were a bit questionable. When Eddie, as the Quizmaster, needed information, he'd reach out to Harvey and his vast network of connections for information and resources. Harvey was generally a neutral party in the fight between the few heroes and the Syndicate, though he was prone to heroic acts if the flip of the coin served him well.

Dent was about the same age as Eddie, short brown hair with a very square jawline. He stood behind the counter with an apron on over his collared shirt and tie. Gilda was bustling about, her long blond hair pulled back into a ponytail as she served a few diners their food. She offered a friendly wave at Eddie then returned back to her business.

"I've been told we're hard to kill," Eddie shot his friend a smile as he sat down on one of the bar stools at the counter. "Did someone tell you something different?"

"It's been all over the news," Harvey replied, retrieving a coffee cup for Eddie. "They've been saying you were killed in the factory fire a few days ago." He set the coffee cup on the counter, pouring his friend a fresh cup.

Harvey then offered up a page from the Gotham Gazette. The front page had the headline, _Heroes Finally Fall_ written by Lois Lane, an associated reporter from Metropolis. A strange sight to see the reporter from Metropolis covering business in Gotham. Lois Lane, however, always seemed like the big scoop type, willing to go wherever the story lead her.

"A swing and a miss," Eddie commented, placing a single silver dollar on the counter. To most, the coin was worthless as it was a positive-matter coin, but to a coin collector like Harvey, the coin was invaluable. "I got that coin on a trip to a place far away. Got a little banged up on one side, but it's still pretty good."

Harvey picked up the coin, turned it over a few times, and even flipped it having a silent debate within his mind, one that could only be solved by the flip of a coin. "Tails. Looks like you get a coffee on the house today."

"Looks like my luck is turning around," Eddie noted, taking the coffee and sipping it.

The Void Hound shifted uncomfortably next to Eddie. He felt that urge once again. Destroy. Destroy. Destroy. He turned to look out the front door of the diner and began emitting a low mechanical growl. This caught Eddie's attention, and he turned to find an unwelcome guest. Athena had entered the building.

Eddie turned on his stool, leaning against the counter behind him while still drinking his cup of coffee. He patted Stephie-Hound on the head, silently reassuring the two that everything would be okay, that he wouldn't allow anything to happen to them.

"Does this mean you've solved my riddle, Owlina?" Enigma questioned, taking a sip of coffee. He was purposefully taunting her, messing up her name just to see the frustration twist her mind into a knot. He was truthfully surprised to see her so quickly, though his appearance wasn't exactly masked. He simply strode into the diner in broad daylight. She must've been watching the area close by.

"It's Athena, you dolt!" she fussed in return, pointing at him in anger.

Eddie shrugged. He didn't actually care what her name was anyway. "I told you already, you have to solve the riddle before you can fight me again. How about one that's not so difficult, hm? Riddle me this: what word means both 'to woo' and 'a short street'?"

She paused. There was no way this thorn in her side could outsmart her so easily, and yet here she was, pointing her finger at him stupidly as the turned the riddle over and over in her mind. She hadn't been able to answer the first one; what gave her the idea another would be easy to answer?

What did it matter anyway? She was here to take him down, not to answer children's puzzles. And this time, she was here with a secret weapon. No games, no hiding, just direct combat, a battle she fully planned to win.

"I'm not here to answer your stupid riddles!" Athena shouted at Eddie, who continued to calmly drink his coffee, leaning against the counter.

Eddie could hear Harvey flipping the coin behind him, over and over again as if contemplating whether or not to intervene. He took another sip of coffee, finishing off the cup. "I had truly hoped to have a decent cup of coffee without being interrupted."

"Since you like to _play_so much," Athena threatened, pulling something out of one of the pouches on her utility belt. She flipped open the top of the object she'd removed, revealing it to be a lighter. "Let's play with fire."


	6. Athena's Wrath 6: Wits and Strategy

This wasn't good at all. Eddie knew what she was capable of doing, mostly burning down the house. Quickly setting down the coffee cup, he swiped his staff off the counter, preparing for battle. "Stephie, stop her! Don't let her burn the place down!"

_Destroy. Destroy to prevent._ Stephie-Hound leapt into action, lunging forward in a vicious brutish attack. Athena was quick on her toes, dodging the attack by leaping to the side and withdrawing an accelerant from another pouch. She dodged several more of Stephie-Hound's attacks. She was nimble and quick, making the hunt more enjoyable. On her last dodge, Athena simply dropped the accelerant on the floor of the diner.

"Oops," she said coyly.

"Tails," Harvey announced suddenly, catching the unusual coin Eddie had brought him. He sprang into action, suddenly throwing a pie over the counter, nailing Athena in the face. She wasn't entirely sure how to dodge such a sudden attack, but how does one truly dodge a pie when attempting to not be mauled by a warmech dog?

Eddie took the opportunity to dash forward and snatch the lighter from her hand. "Stephie, outside!" he called as he quickly pushed Athena out the door. She wouldn't be burning any more buildings down.

Athena wiggled from Eddie's grip, rolling out of the way and onto the sidewalk. She looked up just in time to notice Stephie-Hound had done as told, following close behind ready to maim her. Athena pushed her boot into the hound's underbelly yet found it was made completely of metal, the impact resonating within her bones.

Despite the pain, Athena used the momentum to throw Stephie-Hound off to the side. She rolled to her feet just in time to avoid an energy blast courtesy of Eddie's staff.

"Oh Enigma, you clever shrew," she taunted, pulling owl-faced throwing stars from her pockets, chucking them at her two opponents. She'd successfully separated the two, Eddie on one side and Stephie behind her. Now the challenge was to entertain one while subduing and capturing the other. Didn't matter which one was subdued first, as long as the end result was taking home Enigma as her hostage. Perhaps that hound would do nicely as a trophy, as well, disabling it and using it as a footrest.

She needed some time to formulate a plan, test the waters and see what he was truly capable of doing. Athena had uprooted some information about his not-so-heroic acts on a parallel world from Superwoman via some lucrative bribery, but nothing truly useful on tactics. Pity. She'd have to play it by ear.

Eddie easily dodged the throwing stars, being mindful to not dodge straight into a parked car. Last thing he needed was to corner himself in a battle. This Athena was crafty, much craftier than her counterpart, though she had an attitude that would easily get the better of her. Right now, however, it was important to keep her attention on him. It would make the battle easier.

_Destroy, destroy, destroy._ The thoughts raced through Stephie's mind as quickly as they raced through the Hound's. They were one and the same, sharing a collective purpose in life. The Hound wished to destroy to protect, and Stephie wanted nothing more than to protect her father. That Athena had destroyed their factory home. It wasn't much, but it was theirs. The Syndicate had done nothing but make their lives miserable.

Evil always won in the Antimatter Earth, but the rules were changing, weren't they? They had to.

Stephie lunged at Athena, preparing to claw her arm and pin her to the ground, but the crafty owling had other plans. She had a secret weapon. Athena had procured the magic lasso in exchange for a very interesting, pleasurable night. Superwoman certainly did know how to have fun.

Snapping open one of the pouches on her utility belt, Athena whipped out the lasso and looped it around not Stephie but Eddie himself as she easily stepped out of the way of Stephie's attack.

Eddie had calculated many outcomes to the battle, many possible weapons she could have created in the past week. If she had even half his inventive prowess, she could have easily created an arsenal that fit in her pocket. Instead she'd shown up with something unexpected and near impossible to counter.

The attack caught him by surprise as the lasso tightened around his arms, binding them to his body. Athena yanked him closer, dragging him to where she stood then binding the lasso around him some more until his arms were wound up like a spider's pray caught in a golden web.

"Daddy!" Stephie cried, turning for another attack.

"Don't even think about it, mutt!" Athena threatened. "After all, attacking me could harm your precious daddy."

She was right. Even the Hound could see this logical argument. His mission was to destroy to protect but he couldn't destroy that which he protected, that which meant so much to his other half. It was a bad Catch 22, and he wasn't sure how to fix this.

Athena pulled the lasso tighter around his body, making it near impossible for him to move. Regardless, he still fought against her as if he had a chance to escape. He couldn't get the angle right to use his staff to fight against her, and with the lasso causing him to lose his inhibitions, he would easily have done so to free himself and prevent Stephie from losing him again. "Daddy needs you to be strong, Stephie."

"Why do you fight?!" Athena fussed, looping the lasso around his body another time. "You have no chance of winning! Evil always wins! That's how it always works!"

"You're wrong!" Eddie countered quickly, still fighting against her. "The rules can change. I'll make sure they do! This world can have hope." Even against all odds, he wasn't about to lose his resolve. Though with the lasso around him, his mouth was running a mile a minute. "Everything I've done was for the chance to change things, to make things better so people don't have to live in fear of you and your Syndicate. You won't stop me. I won't die here!"

"Good to know!"

Something impacted Athena's back, causing her to fly across the sidewalk and over Stephie's head, impacting with the wall behind her. Fortunately the impact caused her to lose her grip on the lasso, leaving Eddie in tact but still bound on the sidewalk, somewhat in shock. There was another hero here in Gotham?

Stephie bounded over to Eddie, looking up at the new arrival. "Joker?!"


	7. Athena's Wrath: Conclusion

"Joker?!" Stephie stared up at the stranger in surprise. She knew who Joker was. Morgaine had aligned herself with the clown prince in an attempt to close the rifts created by a failed Trinity ritual. Stephie had seen this, also listening to her father's hesitations when speaking with Xor about their new ally.

Eddie knew quite a bit about Joker and his criminal activities around Positive-matter Gotham City, yet there were still so many unknowns about him. His identity, his motives, his choice of weaponry. Eddie was quite certain the Joker was chaos incarnate. The Joker had overtaken a dimensional rift, twisting it and morphing it into a sadistic circus world, perhaps consciously, perhaps that was simply how he saw the world on a daily basis. Either theory was plausible.

Joker was the last person Eddie ever wanted to meet on a regular day, and right now, the timing was terrible. He'd been rendered completely useless by Superwoman's lasso. It was impossible to escape, due to the magic enchantments or whatever hokum was on it. Regardless, Eddie wanted to see the one who'd finally do him in, meet him face to face. He looked up to see someone unexpected.

The so-called Joker standing before them looked like an inverse of the positive-matter Joker. His hair was purple, short with two strands of bangs framing his forehead. He wore white makeup with red lipstick tracing his rather large iconic grin. His tuxedo was an odd shade of green accompanied by a purple vest and orange shirt.

"It's _Jokester_, actually," he corrected Stephie. "I've heard _lots_ about you two, Enigma. Sure glad to see you don't disappoint in your ideals and initiative."

Eddie blinked stupidly, attempting to let his mind process exactly what this Jokester had just said.

"Surely you didn't think you were the only one who wanted to smash old Owlsie and his pet sidekick with a hammer," Jokester grinned, kneeling down to help undo the knots in the lasso binding Eddie.

Eddie simply stared for a moment. Of course there were other heroes in Gotham. In the positive-matter Gotham, it was the most crime-ridden city in the US, perhaps the world. There was always some criminal mastermind, often with wild or completely insane motives to either kill, steal, or just plain destroy Batman. It only made sense the antimatter Gotham would be the reverse, that more heroes existed other than himself and his daughter. Though truthfully, the last person Eddie expected to have a heroic counterpart was Joker.

There had been before the Justice Underground, yet all of Eddie's former allies were dead. Even back then, Eddie had never heard of the Jokester. Could he be a new hero, just emerging from the shadows to aid Eddie and Stephie in their quest? Or could he be a result of an anomaly in the dimensional fabric, a result of the world resetting itself after the Trinity ritual failed twice and Krona crushed the world? Hard to say, yet Eddie was thankful that the Jokester showed up when he did.

"Damn you, you dumbass clown!" Athena screamed at them, attempting to push herself off the sidewalk and stand up. She was having horrible difficulty with such a simple task. "I can't feel my legs! Why can't I feel them?!" Still lying on the sidewalk, she popped open the snap on one of her belt pouches, reaching for a bomb of some kind. "No matter, I'll kill you all anyway!"

"Tsk, tsk," the Jokester wagged his finger at her, standing back up. "I gave you a _punch_line and you didn't even laugh! Maybe it was the delivery." He frowned at himself, his mouth somewhat distorted as if from an injury. "How about I let Mr. Punchy retell it for me?"

From his pocket he pulled out a gun far too big to have fit in there. It was large and flat, resembling something straight out of a scifi movie. On the side was a large smiley face with the words "Mr. Punchy" scrawled out in purple letters. He pulled the trigger, firing off a ball which was painted to look like a giant smiley face. Inside contained laughing gas, something to ensure his audience gave him the proper reaction to his so-called joke.

The smiley face ball collided with and bounded off an unwanted guest. Seeing the fall of Athena, Owlman arrived on the scene, hunched over his fallen sidekick, his cloak of feathers acting as a barrier for attacks. It was a strangely compassionate move for the supervillain.

"So old Owlsie finally makes the scene," the Jokester frowned sharply.

"A riddler and a joker team up," Owlman frowned. "Is that supposed to be funny or something?"

"He has a terrible sense of humor," Jokester commented, tucking Mr. Punchy back into his pocket. He had other toys he could use against the oversize owl, most of them hidden literally up his sleeves.

"I'm not certain he has one," Eddie frowned. After Jokester had loosened the knots on the lasso, Stephie was able to pull the lasso enough to free her father from the trap. Now able to move freely, Eddie stood up, standing tall next to Jokester with his staff in hand. It was an odd feeling standing beside another hero in his own world, even stranger that it was the antimatter version of the Joker. The two looked quite powerful and intimidating, especially with Stephie-Hound standing next to Eddie.

Owlman paused, observing the three with great scrutiny. He could attack and probably kill at least one of the newly formed group, however it would put Athena at risk. It wasn't concern for her well-being, as such an emotion was hardly within his capabilities. No, if she died here, he would be losing a great investment. He poured time and money into Athena, enhancing her natural capabilities and skills. She was a natural at what she did, and her sadistic nature made it only more enjoyable to train her in his own image.

Yet there was another problem. Retreating would mean breaking the rules. Evil always won, yet there stood three heroes, clearly victorious in the situation. They had the advantage. The Syndicate had poured all their time and effort into researching Enigma, never once expecting another hero to rise up, especially not after what happened to the Justice Underground. Owlman knew nothing of this Jokester or what he was capable of doing.

Athena hadn't said anything, simply seething at the heroes from beneath Owlman's cloak. Blood had pooled up in the back of her costume, yet that was hardly the concern. She'd lost feeling in her legs. She tried to command them yet they wouldn't move. Even with her overwhelming desire to watch them burn, she came to the same silent conclusion as Owlman had. This arrival of a new hero would require a massive plan reformation and excessive amounts of new information.

"Don't think you've won," Owlman broke the silence, standing up with Athena slumped in his arms. She held onto his cloak to steady herself.

"The rules have changed," Eddie asserted, brandishing his staff. "I have won. _We_ have won." It was a small victory, but it was enough to confirm that while the worlds were reset in the end, not everything had remained the same. Perhaps more had changed, yet for now, there was simply a fighting chance. It was enough.

Owlman frowned, narrowing his eyes at Enigma from behind his goggles before darting off into the shadows.

"Any victory's a good victory for me," the Jokester smirked, twisting his features with an impossibly large smile. He was happy to stick around Enigma. They shared a hatred for the Syndicate and a common goal. "So what now?"

Stephie-Hound reached up and tugged on Eddie's tunic with her teeth. "Can we keep him?"


	8. Circus 1: Breaking the rules

"Welcome to my humble abode!" The Jokester announced, his arms outstretched like an overzealous circus ringmaster.

After the battle with Athena, the Jokester had offered up a place for Eddie and Stephie to stay. All the two had left was the lab hidden below what used to be the Nashton family home. It was filled with such sorrow and pain that Eddie didn't necessarily want to be there. It was a symbol of when everything started to go wrong.

Curiosity got the better of Eddie, and he and Stephie followed the Jokester. Eddie couldn't figure out where the Jokester came from or why he'd never heard of him before. The Jokester had definitely been around, even if in non-hero form, as he mentioned following Eddie's heroic acts as Enigma. He hadn't quite mentioned the Quizmaster or the Justice Underground, but that wasn't to imply he hadn't heard of them.

But there was one more possibility, one that had been nagging at the back of Eddie's mind since Athena first showed up. When the worlds reset themselves, they reversed the damage of the Trinity ritual, essentially returning the worlds to how they once were. Yet there were differences, and more kept showing up, discrepancies in the fabric of space or time, perhaps both or something entirely different. First it was the shadow form he'd retained when he had gained godlike powers, then the arrival of Athena, a _sidekick,_ something which the Syndicate never showed interest in before. And now there was a new hero, an Antimatter counterpart to the Joker, helping to curb a victory for the side of good. They were breaking the rules of this world. There was also that strange feeling that they had known each other before.

"Well, whaddaya think, my enigmatic friend?" Jokester nudged his new friend, stirring him from his silent contemplation.

Eddie hadn't quite taken the chance to look around. The Jokester had taken them to a seemingly ordinary house in the center of town. The main floor looked like an ordinary living room with a kitchen, a small dining nook, and a bedroom off to the side. Yet when the Jokester lead them down into the basement, it was immediately obvious the house was a clever cover.

"It looks like a circus!" Stephie exclaimed, excited by the decor within the basement bounding off to get a better look at the place. The place was decorated green and purple in all sorts of patterns. Couches were randomly placed on the floor and in the back were some interesting forms of transportation: a green helicopter, a matching car, and some motorcycles. He kept himself well stocked.

"How did you manage to acquire all this stuff?" Eddie inquired, rather impressed with the collection.

"Comedians are paid a killer salary," the Jokester grinned practically ear to ear.

Eddie had pictured the Jokester as more of a circus performer, though the comedian idea did fit. Certainly he was a famous comedian to afford such things, but Eddie hadn't heard of a comedian who looked like him. That smile was rather distinct as well, impossibly large and almost inhuman. "So what turns a comedian into a hero?"

Jokester frowned sharply. "Old Owlsie wasn't fond of my act, and he made sure I wouldn't forget it." There was definitely a lot more to this story, and Jokester seemed a bit hesitant to speak of it. Perhaps it was recent, still fresh in his mind.

Eddie could sense the pain in his words. "Did it involve family?" When he really didn't like someone and wanted to watch them suffer, Owlman had a tendency to kill off family and leave one man standing. He also had the tendency to leave physical scarring to make the person suffer even more.

Jokester nodded sourly. "Friends too."

So it was the same for him too. How strange it was to find another Owlman had left alive to watch suffer only to have that living person return as a hero and a thorn in his side. "We have more in common than you might realize," Eddie nodded.

...

"URRAAAAA!"

Owlman barely dodged the chair flying across the boardroom. "Calm down for just a moment."

"CALM DOWN?!" Superwoman seethed, picking up another chair. "How the hell do you expect me to be CALM?! That shadow has my LASSO! All thanks to that fledgling of yours! I'll wound you then make you watch as I kill your little pet!"

"Superwoman," Owlman stated, surprisingly calm even after dodging a few chairs and her heat vision. "There was an unexpected turn of events. Another hero showed up, and I had to protect my investment. Besides," he added, "you have other lassos."

"That one was my FAVORITE!" she seethed in return. It was true. She had two other lassos, all of which she had stolen from Themyscira, Dystopia Island, but that one was her first, original lasso. She _liked_ that lasso.

"How can you even tell them apart?" Owlman frowned, dodging another thrown chair.

"I'm going to KILL you, Owlman!" she screamed. She picked up the last chair at the conference table yet paused when a faint beeping began to sound in another room. It was her work phone, no doubt a story she would cover as the reporter Lois Lane. "You're lucky that's work. It's saving your damn life!" She dropped the chair and flew out of the room to answer the phone.

"This is my fault," Athena frowned miserably. She let someone take her by surprise. Was that training all for nothing?! She wheeled herself in from the other room where she had been waiting for Superwoman to leave and hopefully not murder her mentor.

Thanks to Jokester's surprise attack, Athena had been bound to a wheelchair. The impact from the attack had dislodged a vertebra in her spine, causing paralysis from the waist down. Her appearance hadn't changed much, preferring to keep a similar outfit to her Athena one, though she traded the oversize goggles for a pair of blue-tinted glasses and removed the cape.

"It _is_your fault," Owlman frowned, picking up a chair and setting it back at the table. "And you'll be helping make up for it. I need information about this Jokester, his origins, habits, hiding place, and why he feels so familiar."

"That sounds like something you'd like to do yourself," Athena commented. He was the master detective, though she knew how to uproot information just as well as he.

It was something he would thoroughly enjoy, especially since Enigma's activities centered in Gotham City, his own stomping grounds. "I have other _business_ to attend," he replied with somewhat of a frown. "London is being belligerent. We're going to beat them into submission again."

"Wish I were going," Athena frowned, leaning onto the arm of the wheelchair. It sounded like they could use a pyro, lighting the city ablaze. Stupid chair. Stupid clown dislodging her spine. He would _pay_ for that dearly.

"You're staying here," Owlman said forcefully. "I want both of them found. Use whatever resources you need. I want to make an example of them, show people what happens when you try to break the rules."

…**.**

**Author's notes:**

After much delay (Sorry, my sole remaining reader!), another arc, "Circus"!

How I do enjoy writing Superwoman's temper.


	9. Circus 2: Hacking the networks

"Is he always like this?" Jokester had perched himself on the arm of one of the couches, watching Eddie furiously type away on some command prompt at a computer in the corner of the room. He'd given Eddie access to his computer when they had arrived, though the thing wasn't the most modern of technology. The Jokester spent more of his resources on a place to live, transportation, and a vast array of weaponry.

"Mhm," Stephie nodded. She'd curled up on the couch, but as her Void Hound body was huge, she took up the entire couch. She felt right at home in the Jokester's place. "He does this all the time. He's a genius, you know."

"That so?" Jokester asked, though somewhat knowing the answer. Truthfully he knew little of Eddie other than his heroism which dotted the front pages of the Gotham Gazette, but when he heard Enigma speak, it was pretty obvious the guy was intelligent. The newspapers always found ways to outright insult him and turn him into a disgusting creature. After all, heroism was a dirty word.

"There," Eddie proclaimed suddenly, victoriously, as videos and images began spawning across the two monitors set on the desk.

The images caught the Jokester's attention as he recognized several of the buildings in the videos. "What's all this?" The people in the videos moved about, carrying on with their normal lives. A few hoodlums vandalized a building, scrawing the words "Get lost, hero!" on the side of the building. Someone else stole a woman's purse and fled with it. The crimes on the street were petty compared to what they once were, but they still did occur.

"I've hacked into the city's surveillance system," Eddie replied, turning around in his chair to face the other two. "Not the greatest connection yet, but it'll do until we can get more advanced equipment. I'll arrange for some at a later time." Eddie had a vast network of connections, mostly underground legitimate business activities. He also ran a legitimate business and had a vast amount of monetary resources at his disposal. "I've covered my tracks. The Syndicate won't be able to trace the connection even if they had a millennium to do it."

The Jokester wasn't entirely sure if he should laugh because Eddie had managed to tap into the citywide surveillance system so easily or be upset because one actually existed. Default choice was always to laugh. "Haha, pretty impressive!" The Jokester grinned ear to ear. "Sure glad we're on the same side."

A smile finally crossed Eddie's sharp features. It was nice to have an ally. At first, he was a bit hesitant, given that his last team was slaughtered like animals by the Syndicate. But then the strategic mindset kicked in. An ally greatly increased their chances of breaking the rules, of winning battles with the Syndicate. The Jokester no doubt understood what he was getting himself into before he arrived to save the day. He put a lot on the line for that attack and it paid off. He was also giving Eddie and Stephie a place to stay, even if it did feel like living in a circus. At least Stephie found it amusing.

"It is nice to have an ally," Eddie agreed. "I haven't really had one since the Justice Underground."

"Wait a sec, I thought no one survived from that group," the Jokester tapped his chin thoughtfully. It had been all over the newspapers. _Infamous Justice Underground destroyed by the Syndicate. Huge reward paid out to the Syndicate from the City._ Everyone was presumed dead, but it seemed even the papers were wrong. Perhaps they just wanted him to suffer, just like the Syndicate had wanted the Jokester to survive and suffer.

"Were you the Quizmaster?" It only made sense, since the others were either female or not entirely human. That was the only one left he could be. The green costume was there, accompanied by a crooked staff, though it looked different then. The similarities were incredibly similar now that he saw them.

Eddie nodded. Few seemed to realize he was formerly the Quizmaster, except the Syndicate. They never forgot a burning face. "I was until Ultraman burned off half my face. Needed a bit of a name change after that, to something other than the Burning Question." His words were sarcastic with a strong bitterness to them. The Syndicate's actions had set so many things into motion.

"Ha..." The Jokester laughed at the name, but the frown accompanied with the laugh was rather sour. The two exchanged a bit of silence.

"Daddy! The circus is in town!" Stephie exclaimed, breaking the uncomfortable silence in the room. She was staring at the monitors behind her father, watching someone intently.

"Circus?" The Jokester leaned forward on the desk, looking at the monitors. Sure enough, there was a jester fleeing from Gotham Central Bank with bags full of money. "Someone's stealing my shtick and the money."

"We can fight him, right?" Stephie asked. Destroy. Destroy to protect.

No sooner had she spoke than the Jokester was heading for his car. "It'll take a few minutes by car. It's not that far from here."

As that was true, Eddie wasn't too fond of the idea that the Syndicate could possibly track them with such a distinct vehicle. They'd have to take precautions, at least for the time being. "I have a better idea that'll get us there faster."

...

"So you're the Stray," Athena frowned at the woman.

"That is what they call me, love," the Stray replied. She was a tall, slender woman, long brown hair pulled back by large cat ears clipped in. She wore a reddish-purple mask with the edges pointed like cats-eye glasses. Her suit consisted of an underbust corset laced up the back over spandex briefs and a bra of some sort with straps that crisscrossed in the back. Little of her leg was showing as her thigh-high hooker boots covered most off them. Her arms were covered by long gloves, the fingers fashioned into claws.

The Stray was somewhat known as a creature for hire, willing to do whatever the highest bidder was willing to pay. Few had ever seen the Stray, yet Athena's deductive skills allowed her to track down the cat with ease through a network of contacts, video footage, and blackmail, contacting the Stray for a very important job. They met in a private courtyard in the business district of Gotham. Athena had paid off the owner to keep quiet. She sat at the patio table, hiding her wheelchair beneath its white metal frame.

"I have a series of jobs for you," Athena offered. "You will be paid handsomely for each one you successfully complete." She removed two photos from her briefcase, one of Jokester and one of Enigma.

The Stray picked up Enigma's photo, admiring it. "Me-ow." This one was cute, even with the odd face mask, but she had a thing for masks, particularly the unusual ones.

"This is not a dating service!" Athena snapped.

The Stray snickered. "I like to kill the cute ones."

"You're not killing them. Yet," Athena added. She wasn't sure if ever. Her job was to drive Enigma out of hiding, though that didn't mean she wouldn't enjoy making him suffer first. Or to burn down a few things in the process. Surely her mentor wouldn't miss a few minor heroes in his vigilantes gallery.

"First we need to make them suffer. Consider this task a test of your skills. You'll be rewarded handsomely for it." Athena opened the briefcase that had been sitting on the table, turning it around to reveal several stacks of money and some rare gems.

Money was good but rare gems were even better. There was even a cat's eye gem in the collection. They would be a great addition to her personal collection. "Oh this will do nicely. What do you want me to do?"

…

**Author's notes:**

The Stray is, as you've probably guessed, Catwoman's Antimatter counterpart. Her outfit is based off her Injustice outfit mixed with that Halle Berry movie. It has somewhat of a steampunk-gothic crossover feel to it.


End file.
